August
1st 2002-They are what the Financial Times have called the
Barons of Bankruptcy-a privileged group of top business
people who made extraordinary personal fortunes even as
their companies were heading for disaster. They were able
to walk away with gross earnings of $3.3 bn, a stunning
payoff for corporate failure.

The FT
survey covers the 25 largest US public companies to go
bankrupt since 2001. The earnings figures comprise
salary, bonuses, other cash payments and share sales
between January 1999 and December 2001. Gains prior to
1999 and after 2001-often quite large, have not been
included. Nine executives as detailed below sold shares
to the value of $450 m. Gary Winnock of the failed Global
Crossing scooped top rank with a whopping $512 m.

THE
GREEDY BUNCH
You Bought. They Sold.
Meet the 25 companies with the greediest
executives. Of the big companies whose stocks
dropped 75% or more from their boom-time peak,
these are the ones where officers and directors
took out the most money via stock sales from
January 1999 through May 2002. An exclusive study
by FORTUNE, Thomson Financial, and the University
of Chicagos Center for Research in
Securities Pricing.